Goal-oriented Perry thinking out of the box

Even if Corey Perry could score from the penalty box, he would find it strange and lonely.

Not enough elbows, knees, stick blades and curses in there.

Much more familiar to bounce off two defensemen while plunging downward and flicking on the light.

So Perry saw no further reason to dwell in detention. Now he and his long stick are on the ice more than ever, reeling in benefits that seemed beyond his reach.

One of which might be MVP, and this time the V wouldn't stand for Vile.

Yes, Perry has reached the 100 PIM mark again, as he has in every season since '07.

But, as the Ducks go to Dallas tonight for their 20th consecutive Biggest Game Of The Season, he has only 20 penalty minutes since Jan. 6.

He has scored 11 goals since his hat trick against Colorado on Feb. 5, and now has 39, second only to Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos.

But he has played at least 24 minutes in five games since Feb. 16, because he is on the penalty-kill unit and, in a related development, has proved to Randy Carlyle that he won't turn four-on-fives into three-on-fives.

His average time-on-ice is 21:55, first among all NHL right wings. That's more than a half-minute above last year and 3:20 more than in '09.

Gone, for the most part, are the petulant cross-checks in the offensive zone that change a game's vibe and disrupt Carlyle's rotations.

"It was too much," Perry said. "We as a team were in the box a little too much early in the season. I just had to make a conscious effort to relax and play my style of game."

Now that he has scaled that obstacle Perry is free to go anywhere.

Maybe even Las Vegas for the postseason awards ceremony.

Until this year he wasn't mentioned for the Hart Trophy, but then he wasn't supposed to be on Canada's 2005 World Junior team, and he wasn't supposed to wind up on the top line of Canada's Olympic team, and he wasn't supposed to skate well enough to be an All-Star, and if you run out of ceilings for him to launch through, he'll build one himself.

"He has to be in the conversation," said Pierre McGuire, the analyst for TSN and NBC.

"You have Jonathan Toews in Chicago, the Sedins and Ryan Kesler in Vancouver. You have Stamkos, and Nik Lidstrom in Detroit."

You also don't have an injured Sidney Crosby or a particularly dynamic Alex Ovechkin.

Nobody is saying Perry is a favorite.

His plus-minus is zero. Daniel Sedin's is plus-26. Stamkos has higher numbers. Toews and Kesler play both ends well.

But Perry is fifth in the league in points per game, at 1.10. Two partnerships are ahead of him: Stamkos and Martin St. Louis, and the Sedins.

That might be Perry's breakthrough accomplishment of 2010-11.

He is no longer perceived as Ryan Getzlaf's personal assistant.

When Getzlaf was injured Dec. 31-Feb. 5, the Ducks were 13-8-1, and Perry had eight goals.

The best campaign technique is to win games, and Perry now has nine game-winning goals, tied with Ilya Kovalchuk and Daniel Sedin and behind Ovechkin.

"What I see is more consistency game-by-game," Saku Koivu said. "He takes a lot of cross-checks and contact in front of the net. But he's got a long reach and a big body. Somebody has to be there."

Asked which parts of that body hurt the most after a night at the edge of the crease, Perry smiled and said, "Everything. But you build up a tolerance, and I'm used to it."

But the trick, and the reason Perry's game really isn't transferrable, is the way he maneuvers the puck with that long stick while the vortex swirls around him. It's called "hands." No explanation necessary or possible.

"I don't know, I just never have liked to have the puck too close to me," Perry said. "And I guess you can tease the goaltender a little bit."

Luc Robitaille never had wings on his skates and he scored 668 goals. Perry has 157 at age 25.

His models, he said, were Joe Sakic and Mario Lemieux.

"Sakic because of the way he conducted himself. You always want to emulate a guy like that," he said.

"And Lemieux because of the patience he had, all the things he could do with the puck. I'd watch him and go out and do the same things. Well, I'd try at least."

Sakic retired at 40 with 625 goals, two Stanley Cups and the '01 Hart Trophy.

Sakic also won the Lady Byng, for gentlemanly behavior. That might be the only ceiling Perry doesn't care to dislodge.